"What's So Funny?"

by Jerry Corley, founder of the Stand Up Comedy Clinic

Several people have contacted me asking me a simple question: “How do I write a joke.” The question doesn’t stay simple for long. Soon it explodes into an argument of whether they want to do “jokes,” or “stories.”  “The simple fact is: A joke is a story! Sid Caesar, master comedian, performer and writer once said a joke is a story with a curlicue.” People argue with me all the time that formula and structure have no place in today’s comedy. In fact, those folks are either completely naive or they are lying to themselves, because every great comedian—whether he knows it or not—is using comedic structure.

To understand how to write a joke, we must first understand why people laugh. Fact: the number one element that triggers human laughter is SURPRISE. It’s like magic, only with words. A magician surprises the audience when he does his trick. If there is no surprise, there is no trick. The formula for any magician is to have surprise. Without formulating surprise, you’re gonna have one hell of a boring act.

It’s the same with comedy. Once you understand this, you can do one of two things: 1. You can start to ramble and figure out how to surprise your audience… or 2. You can develop an understand of the structures or “formulas” in comedy that create surprise for the audience, whenever you want. Two other major reasons humans laugh are embarrassment and recognition, but we’ll get to those later.

The key is for any joke to work, there has to be some kind of surprise. So the next question is: How to we create surprise? The easiest way to create surprise is to  lead the audience to assume one thing—then surprise them with something different. (See how it’s similar to magic?)

• I woke up in the hotel this morning and the housekeeper was banging on the door, just banging… Finally, I had to get up and let her out.

Let’s look at the joke. It’s a common situation. Most people have been in a hotel room and been disturbed by a knocking housekeeper. She knocks because she’s outside and wants to come in. That’s what the audience assumes! So as a comedian or humorist, you switch the ending at the last minute to surprise them. This is called a “reverse” in comedy and it works all the time. The key is that you don’t want to use this same formula repetitively, because the ending will then be expected to be switched and you’ve given away the surprise. Remember, without surprise, there is no laugh. Let’s look at a couple more jokes that come out of talking about personal setbacks in my life that I formulated into jokes:

• “I’ve been losing my hair…some guys say it doesn’t bother them when they lose their hair. It bugs me a little bit…like, in the mornings, when my wife is running my fingers through my hair—but I already left for work!
• I remember one relationship this chick broke up with me and I went over to her house at two in the morning to beg her to take me back. I was banging on the door, yelling, “Stacy! Stacy!—which is weird, cuz’ her name is Emily.

Each of these jokes use the formula of leading the audience to assume one thing then shattering that assumption with something different.

This is just one formula for writing jokes. Of course each of these can be weaved into a story and disguised as a story so it not so obvious that you’re telling jokes. If you disguise it into a story the audience is less likely to see the joke coming and be surprised.  And, like a magician if they don’t see it coming if makes for a better act.

Stay tuned or link to the feed to get more updates on joke writing, performance techniques and class schedules.

About the author:

Jerry Corley is a professional comedian with 25 years experience touring the globe. He was also a contributing writer to the Tonight Show with Jay Leno for 8 years. Currently, he is still touring and also teaching comedy classes in Los Angeles at the Stand Up Comedy Clinic. 

3-Steps To Finding A Good Comedy Instructor

“My Name Is Jerry Corley. I Teach Stand Up Comedy…and I’d Like To Report A Crime…”

I’ve been a professional comedian for over twenty years. I’ve spent many years working 38 to 40 weeks on the road. I’ve written for television shows, including spending 8 years as a contributing writer on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. I’ve written entire shows for comedians, including one for an impressionist who, as a result, booked 43 weeks at a Las Vegas Resort. The resort closed shortly after that, but they honored the remainder of his contract: 35 remaining weeks x $10,000…not a bad pay day!

I’ve structured my shows to give performances that receive standing ovations. Now I teach what I know. I still do corporates and other gigs, but without the long weeks away from home and family.

I love teaching.

When potential students contact me on the phone or email, one of the first things they ask me is, “How can you tell whether a comedy instructor is good and I’m not wasting my money?” Well, first if you have a good rapport on the phone and you think you’ll get along with the instructor, follow these simple steps to be sure that you’ll be satisfied in your choice:

Step 1: See if your instructor has any video of himself or herself performing stand up online. If they do, watch it. If they don’t, contact that instructor either by phone or email and ask them if they have any video of their stand up that you can watch. If they don’t have any, go to…

Step 2: Hang up the phone and throw away the email, because really, what are they going to teach you? The only thing they have demonstrated is how not to do comedy.

Step 3: If they do have video, watch it. Does it make you laugh? Can you hear the structure? Are they confident? Is their delivery, writing and choice of material interesting and Intelligent? Again, does it make you laugh? If the answer to any of those questions is “no,” then repeat step 2.

Why am I being so hard on comedy teachers? I’ll tell you why. I love this industry. I love the art form of comedy and I am passionate about the science of laughter and structure of comedy. I study it. I write it. I perform it. I can sit down and write funny about anything. (At least that’s what I tell myself each time I sit down to write funny about anything!) I believe a humorist should be able to, with practice and work, make any logical grouping of words, funny.

I see a lot of instructors out there ready to take your money. Comedy classes aren’t expensive, really, but for struggling artists they are. So before you plunk down your hard-earned 3 to 5 hundred dollars, your instructor should be able to demonstrate how to write a joke from scratch and make it funny. They should be able to step on that stage, with the pressure of an audience and perform it themselves.

I believe a good part of teaching is demonstrating. If they can’t demonstrate it, how in the world are they to effectively teach it? They might be able to regurgitate what they read in say, Judy Carter’s books and even Xerox that material and issue it to you in class as a hand out and claim they are teaching. They may also offer a student a critique only by telling the student when they think something is “HACK!”

Is this teaching? Maybe to some it is. But I believe it boils down to this: Would you learn how to paint an abstract or still life from somebody who can’t paint? Would you take driving lessons from someone who doesn’t have a driver’s license? Would you—you get the point.

You might learn a little something from those kinds of instructors, but a comedy instructor without an actual act is like a flight instructor without a pilot’s license. Odds are you are destined to crash! Simply, they lack the first-hand ability to apply the fundamentals of humor and create a laugh-out-loud article, essay, speech or stand up performance. And here’s the problem: you just paid five hundred bucks for that. That, my friends, is criminal.

Top 10 Reasons Stand Up is Great for Actors
Actors and actresses have so much to gain by studying stand up comedy. Even if an actor has no intention of pursuing a career in stand up, learning to be completely vulnerable on stage and being comfortable in your skin is extremely powerful when it comes to audition time. Although there are many, many reasons stand up can have a positve impact on your acting, below I’ve listed my top 10. Lights, Camera, Action! Number….

1. You can learn to master playing in front of just a few people, which is very similar to a casting situation.

2. You learn to ad-lib. Improv skills are essential in acting and audition situations.

3. You learn not only how to tell stories that are funny, you learn interpret the humor in scripts and how to play comedy successfully by playing against the comedy. Mediocre comedians play the comedy. Great comedians play the situation.

4. It’s a brilliant way to showcase. Casting directors and directors are coming to comedy showcases more than ever. Casting directors, agents and managers are always looking for new talent. The problem is their time is very limited. They would rather come out to watch your 6-10 minute showcase than come out an watch a 2-hour play. It’s simple time management.

5. It demonstrates courage. Most of the people you are trying to impress in the industry are in awe of artists who have the courage to do stand up. My friend met Robert Redford recently. Redford said, “I’m in awe of comedians. Doing stand up scares the hell out of me.”

6. The one-man/one-woman show – your ticket to notoriety.

7.  When you’re a working comic and also an actor, you can work when you’re not “working.” Meaning, you can get gigs as a comedian and pay the bills performing when you don’t have an acting gig.

8. When people think you’re funny, they also think you’re smart. Funny is memorable. People like to be around people who make them laugh. If two actors are up for a job and the CD or the Director just saw you perform at a comedy club and you made them laugh, who is that CD most likely to choose?

9. You learn to be you. In 99 percent of all casting situations the casting director asks the actor to “just be yourself.” You’d be amazed at how many actors freeze. Actors spend so much time in training learning to develop characters that they forget how to be themselves. Stand up comedy gives you that ability.

10. Learn to NAIL AUDITIONS. Nothing develops unbreakable confidence onstage than performing stand up on a regular basis. “You develop a thick skin,” says actor Ray Romano. “After performing stand up, Performing in an audition situation was a piece of cake. I mean what could these people ever say to hurt my feelings that some drunk in the city hasn’t already said?” One of the best ways to develop unbreakable confidence on stage is by doing stand up on a regular basis.

Can You Be Funnier Than Jake?
by Jerry Corley founder of the Stand Up Comedy Clinic

I’m a big fan of comedy, but like with anything there are certain styles I prefer to others. I’ve never been one to judge another comedian’s selection of material per se, but I will point out when a performer is relying too heavily on gratuitous F-bombs and by “gratuitous” I mean the F-bomb makes up a majority of your dialogue.

But that’s not what this particular blog is about. This one is about what is commonly referred to as “potty humor” or in some circles “shit” jokes. Not a big fan, but sometimes they can make you laugh. I am a big fan of the theory that as comedians we’re only guessing and the audience is the judge, so if the audience is laughing consistently, leave it in.

The reason I bring up this particular topic is that a couple of my favorite comics: Jake and Rob are currently involved in a little competition that deals with “potty humor”. But I find it very funny and I have participated in the competition. Jake, known world over for his crassness, called Rob one night and said: “I took a shit so big it had a tail number!” (referring to an aircraft) This was played over Rob’s speakerphone and everyone in the room started to laugh. It became a game and everyone—even the ladies in the room, (most were comedians)—wanted to play along. So we all tried to outdo one another as to who could come up with the funniest line, based on the phrase: “I took a shit so big…”

I realized that despite the fact that it was potty humor, it was an excellent exercise in using contrasting elements to create humor. The game has even traveled outside our circle as other people have “texted” us with their versions.

Now I know there are going to be some people out there who are grossed out by this and for them I say, DON’T READ IT. Humor comes in different styles, genres and tastes. Some people like shit jokes, some don’t. But as a lifelong student of comedy I try to take in all styles and all types and if it doesn’t suit me I can usually be assured that somebody, somewhere is laughing.

So now it’s your turn. CAN YOU BE FUNNIER THAN JAKE?. This is a great exercise juxtaposing contrasting elements and for understanding that nothing is off limits. Give it your best shot…to get you started, here are some of the ones already in play:

I took a shit so big:
- Don King promoted it.
- Michael Bay directed it.
- Tom Arnold married it.
- It sacked Tom Brady
- You could see it from the Space Shuttle.
- It was insured by Lloyds of London
- It only gets three miles-per-gallon.
- France gave it to the U.S. as a gift.

Have fun!

Jerry Corley teaches Stand Up Comedy and Comedy Writing Secrets at The Stand Up Comedy Clinic in Burbank, CA

Humor in Contrasting Elements
by Jerry Corley, founder of The Standup Comedy Clinic

It’s called a “sense” of humor for a reason. Just as human beings possess a sense of sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste, we humans also have a sense of humor in that our sense is capable of development and improved sensitivity. Also keep in mind that just as our other five senses are unique to each individual, so is our sense of humor. You’ve probably had the experience of laughing out loud at something you seen, heard or read and someone else close to you doesn’t laugh at all and when you say, wasn’t that funny? They just stare at you. That is a perfect example of your sense of humor being unique to you and your experiences. Comedy is subjective and therefore everything doesn’t make everyone laugh.

I like to follow this adage: “We’re only guessing…the audience is the judge.”

You can, however develop your sense of humor to be much more acute to everyday situations that have the possibility of making people laugh. All jokes or funny situations do have particular elements that occur regularly, which are responsible for making them funny. What if you could make sure that your material contained these elements before trying them out on others wouldn’t that help you in preparing the best set possible?

One of the simplest formulas in comedy theory is what I like to call a juxtaposition of contrasting elements. It’s basically putting two things together that don’t usually go together and playing them out as if it was totally natural and common. For example: “scuba diving” and “fast-food drive-thru”. Your choice of target or subject is important too and will impact the way somebody laughs at your joke. Since comedy is a veiled attack the subject should be someone or something that appears to deserve the said attack. If you choose something or someone who is innocent or as yet “undeserving” of attack or criticism, then an audience will wonder why you attacked them for no reason. So be sure you set up someone as a villain or choose something or someone who needs the rug pulled out from under them.

So, for this example of humor my target is the social networking site, “MySpace” and the women who send you photos of themselves eager to meet a new “friend” when, in reality, they are advertising their porn website. This immediately conjures up an attitude in me of annoyance, which, to me, makes the subject worth attacking.

A woman sent me a picture of herself climbing a ladder, wearing scantily clad shorts, her bulbous ass sticking out of them. Her expression was that of a woman trying to be sexy…either that or her best impression of a dyspeptic terrier. The comment attached to the photo was “Don’t be a stranger…God Bless!”

The implication here is that a bimbo exploiting herself for sex is sanctioned by the almighty. To me that’s funny!

But this joke isn’t completely fleshed out yet. This particular joke lends itself to the idea that one or many tags could play off it.. The tags would focus on other things one could say or do with God’s blessing…You might say something like: “What if other entities used that same approach? Porn sites featuring intro pages like: “Enter here for the hottest hardcore porn on the Internet! Enjoy and God Bless!” Budweiser could run their typical ad where two average guys crack a bud and the Budweiser Twins show up in bikinis rubbing up on the two guys… “Hi Boys!” Then the tagline: “Drink Responsibly— God Bless!” “A cigarette commercial: More Flavor, Less Tar—God Bless!”

The possibilities become endless of putting two contrasting elements together that normally don’t go together and playing them as if they do. Try this yourself and see how many you can come up with!

Jerry Corley is a professional comedian, actor and writer and teaches comedy writing and performing at The Standup Comedy Clinic in Los Angeles.

Making Money doing Corporate Comedy
by Jerry Corley

Corporate comedy is a world of its own within the comedy industry. It is a segment of the business that is totally separate from the mainstream club and college work.You can do corporate comedy and make a really good living without people in the mainstream comedy world really even knowing your name. Yet, it’s a perfectly legitimate way to keep up your stand up and writing chops and bring in a nice income.

The most important thing to remember about doing corporate comedy is that the material has to be clean. There is no bigger faux pas in the corporate comedy business than delivering “blue” material—well, besides not showing up! I know several inexperienced corporate comedians who have done shows for companies and thought they were staying “safe” by asking the corporate audience if they would like to hear a “clean” joke or a “dirty” joke. Inevitably, you will have someone in the audience shout out “dirty!” The problem with this approach is that there is always someone in the audience—could be the CEO’s wife, or husband who is offended. When you offend someone in the audience at a corporate show you are not only doing yourself a disservice but also causing a ripple effect that impacts the entire corporate comedy circuit. That company, for one, will probably not hire another comedian for an event and the word will spread like wildfire that comedy equals “blue” and therefore is not appropriate for a corporate event.

In a nutshell, keep it clean!

Corporate comedy works like this: A company, say Wells Fargo Bank, calls a corporate agent or looks you up on the internet or a rep for the company sees you in a club and wants to hire you for a Holiday party, annual meeting, retirement party, etc. They say they want you to do comedy for them. You secure a price which varies. I charge $1000-$3500 depending on where it is, how much time they expect and if they want me to write and perform material customized for their organization. We arrange details: transportation, accommodations and payment arrangements. I do an interview with the contact or send out a questionnaire I prepare to get some information on their company; any pet peeves, outstanding circumstances, exciting news, competitors, local politics, etc. Then I write several jokes about their company and their industry and make sure it flows nicely around my clean act and I’m ready.

Recently I did a show for Wells Fargo Bank. I opened with some jokes about the really small plane I had to take to get into Grand Junction, Colorado:

“I was all the way in the back of the plane in seat six…The in-flight entertainment was shadow puppets!” When we landed at the airport there is no tower, there’s a guy standing on a lifeguard stand waving us in with a couple of flashlights…”

That got them on a little roll so I went into some stuff about their bank:

“You know, when Julie Link (the coordinator), asked me to perform for your company party I quoted her a firm price, but I forgot to tell her that that was just for the ATM: the Automatic-Joke-Teller-Machine. In order to hear the live comedy, it’s gonna cost you an additional surcharge…and I read the Wells Fargo is second largest bank in the U.S. with four hundred and sixty billion dollars in assets…

I invited them to applaud here by repeating “four hundred and sixty billion” and clapping myself. This gives them a chance to be proud in their success.

…with four hundred and sixty billion in assets, when you walk into a branch, don’t you think they could give you a damn ball point pen that works? And why do you have to chain them to the desk? You have four hundred and sixty billion dollars in assets! You should be giving them away…you should be throwing boxes of pens at your customers…!”

They laughed pretty loud here and gave me an applause break that I didn’t have to encourage. Once I had them, it allowed me to segue into my own clean material, but also giving them the impression that I wrote the whole act for them!

It took me only a couple hours of preparation, research and actual joke writing to come up with a little bit of humor focused on their interests and the interests of the company that hired me. I was able to do this using the same techniques that you will learn at the Stand Up Comedy Clinic.

The great thing about corporate work is that you fly in, stay in first class accommodations, fly out the next day and you’re home with a nice paycheck. You meet some nice people, have a chance to write some new material, have fun being funny and you get paid! What a life, huh?! Well, gotta go! Hewlett Packard is on the phone!
Jerry Corley is a 20-year professional stand up comedian. He was a contributing writer for the Tonight Show with Jay leno for 8 years and teaches a comedy workshop in the Los Angeles area.